Embodiments are related to alarm systems, alarm signal, alarm monitoring, and wireless communications.
The typical series of events that occur to get a responder on site, to the location where the alarm system has been triggered, takes anywhere from tens of minutes to hours, which gives criminals adequate time to burglarize and make their escape. Traditional alarm systems, when triggered, send a signal to a monitoring center, which then calls the owner of the property. The call is made to see if the alarm was somehow triggered by accident. If there is no answer to the call, additional calls may be placed to contact another responsible party. If a responsible party can not be contacted, or if an owner confirms that the alarm is not being triggered by accident, the monitoring center will alert local police departments to respond. Depending on the current load of a particular police force, an officer may be dispatched immediately. Often there is a police shortage in a city, and the dispatch must be queued based on priority of other situations. Once dispatched, the police officer proceeds to the location of the triggered alarm system. In a best case scenario, a police officer responds in roughly 10 minutes. Criminals, knowing this, use the slow response time to complete their business and leave before the police arrive.
In emergency situations, the people who can help, such as family, friends, and government services are usually physically far away from where the emergency is happening or are busy with situations that require more attention. If the emergency happens to be a fire, burglary, or heart attack, seconds can make a large difference to the outcome of the emergency. Fortunately, most humans live in relatively close proximity to others, deeming them as neighbors. If the proper information about the emergency were to be distributed to the neighbors in the time of an emergency, such as: the location, what type of emergency, people involved, etc.; then there would be a potentially massive reduction in negative outcomes from the emergency.
Alarm systems are designed to provide a means of security, safety, and peace of mind. An alarm system has sensors to monitor the opening of entrances to buildings, and provides a way to communicate a triggered alarm. Alarm systems allow buildings to be monitored remotely without anyone being physically in the building.
FIG. 1, labeled as prior art, illustrates an alarm system 101 with an audible alarm 106 and a communications channel 119 to a remote monitoring center 107. The alarm system 101 can have many sensors such as door sensors 108, movement sensors 110, water leak sensors 111, window sensors 112, smoke sensors 114, and fire sensor 115. A door sensor 108 can detect when a door 109 is opened or closed. A movement sensor 110 can detect movement in its local environment. A water leak sensor 111 can detect a water leak by, for example, detecting water pooling on the floor. A window sensor 112 can detect when a window 113 is opened or closed. A smoke sensor 114 can detect smoke. A fire sensor 115 can detect fire.
The sensors can communicate information to a control unit 102. The communication can be wireless or can transit a wire. Wireless communications techniques include Zigbee, Z-wave, Bluetooth, and other wireless techniques. A triggered sensor 116 is a sensor that has detected a triggering event 121. For example, opening a door can trigger a door sensor. The control unit can react to the trigger sensor by changing the state of a control signal 117 to thereby cause an audible alarm unit 104 sound an audible alarm 106, causing a visible alarm unit 105 to produce a visible alarm 123, or causing a reporting unit 103 to inform a remote monitoring center 107 of the triggered sensor 116. The audible alarm unit 104 can provide an alarm signal 118 to a sonic transducer 122, such as an audio speaker, that produces the audible alarm 106. FIG. 1 illustrates a single control signal 117 being passed to the audible alarm unit 104, reporting unit 103, and visible alarm unit 105 although, in practice, the control unit 102 can send different control signals to audible alarm unit 104, visible alarm unit 106, and reporting unit 103. In any case, the control signal or control signals carry information and change state in accordance with the control unit's programming, the alarm system configuration, and the triggered sensor 116.
Alarm systems for homes and businesses have been widely deployed and many homeowners and business owners are dissatisfied to have discovered that there is no or slow response to those alarms even when a monitoring service is being paid to monitor the alarm. Systems and methods for providing sufficient response to alarms are needed.